Body Fat

Also had my body fat measured, which was also pretty positive

Date	Weight	Body Fat Percent	Total Fat
05/21/10	184 lbs	18.7%	34.41 lbs
10/14/10	174 lbs	17.6%	30.97 lbs
04/19/11	179 lbs	17.1%	30.61 lbs

While it would be nice to lose a few more pounds of fat, it does confirm that since October, I've actually put on 5 lbs of actual muscle!

Cardio Testing

Finally got round to having a new metabolic test done today. Interestingly unlike my other ones, this one didn't push me nearly to the point that I had to quit. I suspect that's just because I'm fitter, but I'd like to see how I perform at higher heart rates too (even if I shouldn't be going into that area)

The big improvement is the heart rates at which my body burns fat. Compare this chart from when I just started working out in May of last year

The black line shows how much of my energy come from fat (which I have about 30 lbs of) versus the remainder coming from carbs (which are much more limited).

Your "Aerobic Base" is defined as the point at which you get half your energy from carbs - a year ago that was at 123 bpm and I was burning approximately 7 kcal/minute (3.5 of which was fat). Interestingly my metabolic trainer drew a dotted line on here that represents what a world-class endurance athlete's results would look like.

Compare that to my chart from today:

The most obvious thing is that my different zones have tightened a lot, and I really should be training between about 149 and 157 bpm. That seems like it will be hard to do, but I am assured that's a good thing.

The next thing is that my Aerobic Base has moved from 123bpm to 149bpm and at that optimal point I'm now able to burn 13.1 kcal/minute (6.8 of that being fat). This means I can exert myself at a higher level without exhausting my body's supply of carbs, which should lead to more endurance.

The main things I need to focus on to get closer to the penciled-in line on the first chart are

• Training in zone 3 & 4
• Working my recovery when standing still after running. On paper this actually looks like it's gotten worse, but my peak heart rate at the end of the most recent test was far lower than the original test so perhaps it's just harder to drop BPMs from a lower starting point

Third day of Team Training

Another day of team training and much the same results



The good news is that I was able to do the whole thing in my FiveFingers although I'm paying for that the next day.

I'm also scheduled to do a Metabolic retest tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see how my relatively stale heart rate results (showing I only got 14% of my total calories from fat) change next week.

Trying to figure out the course

I spent some time with Google Earth today trying to figure out what the course really looks like.

Here's my best guess of what the track will be based on the rather crappy drawing on the Tough Mudder website. This weighs in at 8.5mi and with 3074ft of elevation gain - i know they claim 4200' of elevation gain, but I can't figure out where I'm wrong. (It's possible that if you went out and walked this with a GPS that you'd get a lot more gain because the uncertainty in elevation measurements).

And as if that doesn't look bad enough, here's what I think the elevation profile looks like:

Looks like a few pretty tough uphill runs (kicking things off with a mile up a 1 in 5 slope) but there are a few breathers in there too.

First day of team training

Met with a few other team members to work out at Red Rocks. (Click the Aerial button, it looks a lot nicer)



We ran the bleachers for about 2.5 miles (I was slow to turn on my GPS) and then did some assorted strength related activities.

During the running portion, I mostly did intervals running one direction and then walking the next one (or occasionally two distances). My running lengths came in at about an 8-10 minute mile and my walking pace was around a 15-18 minute mile. I averaged a 12 minute mile for this which is right about what I'd like to do for the whole race.

I'm interested in reducing my recovery times during the walk part of the interval. From a peak rate of 173 ending a running interval, my heart rate dropped to 150 during a minute of walking at around 3.5mph. Unfortunately at the moment my heart rate clearly zig-zags upwards as I run more intervals without ever returning to a baseline - clearly that's not sustainable.

After that we did some assorted strength training exercises, and ended running a circuit of the outer small steps. Running up the last set of steps was probably the hardest thing I did all day and pushed my heart rate as high as 177. At the point that I'd completed the circuit I was back to a heart rate of 155 which dropped to 129 standing resting for a minute, and down to 120 after resting for two minutes.